In a Mexico City hotel room, Perry browses through his personal artifacts
and papers. He comes across a letter written by his father on his
behalf while at the Kansas State Penitentiary, detailing the events of
Perry’s early life. As one of four children born to the Western rodeo
duo of Tex John Smith
and Florence Buckskin, Perry lived an impoverished and itinerant
childhood until his parents’ separation when Perry was six years old.
After living for a short while with his alcoholic mother, Perry was sent to a Catholic orphanage, where nuns routinely abused him for wetting the bed. After he contracted pneumonia from this and other forms of neglect, his father took him away to live in Alaska, where he learned to hunt and track, and to search for gold in nearby streams.
http://www.gradesaver.com/in-cold-blood/study-guide/section4/
After living for a short while with his alcoholic mother, Perry was sent to a Catholic orphanage, where nuns routinely abused him for wetting the bed. After he contracted pneumonia from this and other forms of neglect, his father took him away to live in Alaska, where he learned to hunt and track, and to search for gold in nearby streams.
http://www.gradesaver.com/in-cold-blood/study-guide/section4/